A Dictionary of Hallucinations
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Jan Dirk Blom
A Dictionary of Hallucinations
123
Jan Dirk Blom, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Parnassia Bavo Group & University of Groningen Paradijsappelstraat 2 2552 HX The Hague The Netherlands
ISBN 978-1-4419-1222-0 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-1223-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-1223-7 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2009937444 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Cover illustration: 1. ‘The Absinthe Drinker’. Oil painting (c. 1903) by Viktor Oliva; 2. ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Illustration (c. 1865) by John Tenniel 3. Functional MRI scans of the brain, axial slices, group analysis. The yellow, orange, and red areas represent an increase in the BOLD response concomitant to verbal auditory hallucinatory activity. Scan images courtesy of Dr. Rutger Goekoop and Dr. Jasper Looijestijn, Parnassia Bavo Group, The Hague. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Our history is full of the reports of visionaries, prophets, and other figures who derived their insights and authority from what we would now call hallucinations. As these reports testify, individuals who knew how to deploy them convincingly for some noble cause were often rewarded with a high social status. Religious texts like the Bible even indicate that for a long time no event of importance was thought to take place without some announcement by a voice or vision from beyond. Thus one might hold that hallucinations have constituted a legitimate source of information and inspiration in most – if not all – ancient cultures. On the other hand, for other groups of individuals they have always constituted a significant source of suffering. But even in these cases, the concept of illness seldom seemed to come to mind. Those who needed help were more likely to be taken to a priest than to a physician. According to Zilboorg and Henry, for thousands of years it was unthinkable that doctors, with their earthly methods, would involve themselves in matters pertaining to the spirit. This may well have been the principal reason why biomedicine became involved in the study of hallucinations so late in its developmental history. From the 17th century on, the rise of scientific thinking and the simultaneous process of secularization
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